AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF COMBINATORICS Volume 54 (2012), Pages 107–114 Some results on incidence coloring, star arboricity and domination number Pak Kiu Sun∗ Wai Chee Shiu Department of Mathematics Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong Hong Kong [email protected] [email protected] Abstract Two inequalities are established connecting the graph invariants of inci- dence chromatic number, star arboricity and domination number. Using these, upper and lower bounds are deduced for the incidence chromatic number of a graph and further reductions are made to the upper bound for a planar graph. It is shown that cubic graphs with orders not divis- ible by four are not 4-incidence colorable. Sharp upper bounds on the incidence chromatic numbers are determined for Cartesian products of graphs, and for joins and unions of graphs. 1 Introduction An incidence coloring separates the whole graph into disjoint independent incidence sets. Since incidence coloring was introduced by Brualdi and Massey [4], most re- search has concentrated on determining the minimum number of independent in- cidence sets, also known as the incidence chromatic number, which can cover the graph. The upper bound on the incidence chromatic number of planar graphs [7], cubic graphs [13] and a lot of other classes of graphs were determined [6, 7, 15, 17, 21]. However, for general graphs, only an asymptotic upper bound is obtained [9]. There- fore, to find an alternative upper bound and lower bound on the incidence chromatic number for all graphs is the main objective of this paper. In Section 2, we will establish a global upper bound for the incidence chromatic number in terms of chromatic index and star arboricity. This result reduces the upper bound on the incidence chromatic number of the planar graphs. A global lower bound which involves the domination number will be introduced in Section 3. ∗ This research was partially supported by the Pentecostal Holiness Church Incorporation (Hong Kong) 108 PAK KIU SUN AND WAI CHEE SHIU Finally, the incidence chromatic number of graphs constructed from smaller graphs will be determined in Section 4. All graphs in this paper are connected. Let V (G)andE(G)(orV and E)bethe vertex-set and edge-set of a graph G, respectively. Let the set of all neighbors of a vertex u be NG(u)(or simply N(u)). Moreover, the degree dG(u)(or simply d(u)) of u is equal to |NG(u)| and the maximum degree of G is denoted by Δ(G)(orsimply Δ). An edge coloring of G is a mapping σ : E(G) → C, where C is a color-set,such that adjacent edges of G are assigned distinct colors. The chromatic index χ(G)of agraphG is the minimum number of colors required to label all edges of G such that adjacent edges received distinct colors. All notations not defined in this paper can be found in the books [3] and [22]. Let D(G) be a digraph induced from G by splitting each edge uv ∈ E(G) into two −→ −→ opposite arcs uv and vu. According to [15], incidence coloring of G is equivalent to −→ −→ the coloring of arcs of D(G), where two distinct arcs uv and xy are adjacent provided one of the following holds: (1) u = x; (2) v = x or y = u. Let A(G)bethesetofallarcsofD(G). An incidence coloring of G is a mapping σ : A(G) → C, where C is a color-set, such that adjacent arcs of D(G) are assigned distinct colors. The incidence chromatic number, denoted by χi, is the minimum cardinality of C for which σ : A(G) → C is an incidence coloring.Anindependent set of arcs is a subset of A(G) which consists of non-adjacent arcs. 2 Incidence chromatic number and Star arboricity A star forest is a forest whose connected components are stars. The star arboricity of agraphG (introduced by Akiyama and Kano [1]), denoted by st(G), is the smallest number of star forests whose union covers all edges of G. We now establish a connection among the chromatic index, the star arborcity and the incidence chromatic number of a graph. This relation, together with the results by Hakimi et al. [10], provided a new upper bound of the incidence chromatic number of planar graphs, k-degenerate graphs and bipartite graphs. Theorem 2.1 Let G be a graph. Then χi(G) ≤ χ (G)+st(G),whereχ (G) is the chromatic index of G. Proof: We color all the arcs going into the center of a star by the same color. Thus, half of the arcs of a star forest can be colored by one color. Since st(G)isthe smallest number of star forests whose union covers all edges of G, half of the arcs of G can be colored by st(G) colors. The uncolored arcs now form a digraph which is an orientation of G. We color these arcs according to the edge coloring of G and this is a proper incidence coloring because edge coloring is more restrictive. Hence χ(G)+st(G) colors are sufficient to color all the incidences of G. INCIDENCE COLORING, ARBORICITY AND DOMINATION 109 Remarks: Theorem 2.1 was independently obtained by Yang [23] previously. For further information please consult the webpage [18]. We now obtain the following new upper bounds on the incidence chromatic num- bers of planar graphs, a class of k-degenerate graphs and a class of bipartite graphs. Corollary 2.2 Let G be a planar graph. Then χi(G) ≤ Δ+5 for Δ =6 and χi(G) ≤ 12 for Δ=6. Proof: The bound is true for Δ ≤ 5, since Brualdi and Massey [4] proved that χi(G) ≤ 2Δ. Let G be a planar graph with Δ ≥ 7, we have χ (G)=Δ[14,20]. Also, Hakimi et al. [10] proved that st(G) ≤ 5. Therefore, χi(G) ≤ Δ+5 by Theorem 2.1. While we reduce the upper bound on the incidence chromatic number of planar graphs from Δ + 7 [7] to Δ + 5, Hosseini Dolama and Sopena [6] reduced the bound to Δ + 2 under the additional assumptions that Δ ≥ 5 and girth g ≥ 6. AgraphG is k-degenerate [12] if every subgraph of G has a vertex of degree at most k. Coloring problems on k-degenerate graphs [5, 7, 11] are widely studied because of its relative simple structure. In particular, Hosseini Dolama et al.[7] proved that χi(G) ≤ Δ+2k − 1, where G is a k-degenerate graph. Moreover, certain important classes of graph such as outerplanar graphs and planar graphs are 2-degenerate and 5-degenerate graphs, respectively [12]. A restricted k-degenerate graph is a k-degenerate graph with the subgraph induced by N(vi)∩{v1,v2,...,vi−1} is a complete graph for every i. We lowered the bound for restricted k-degenerate graph as follow. Corollary 2.3 Let G be a restricted k-degenerate graph. Then χi(G) ≤ Δ+k +2. Proof: By Vizing’s theorem, we have χ(G) ≤ Δ + 1. Also, the star arboricity of a restricted k-degenerate graph G is less than or equal to k + 1 [10]. Hence we have χi(G) ≤ Δ+k + 2 by Theorem 2.1. Corollary 2.4 Let B be a bipartite graph with at most one cycle. Then χi(B) ≤ Δ+2. Proof: When B is a bipartite graph with at most one cycle, st(B) ≤ 2[10].Also, it is well known that χ(B) = Δ. These results together with Theorem 2.1 prove the corollary. 3 Incidence chromatic number and domination number A dominating set S ⊆ V (G) of a graph G is a set where every vertex not in S has a neighbor in S. The domination number, denoted by γ(G), is the minimum cardinality of a domination set in G. 110 PAK KIU SUN AND WAI CHEE SHIU A maximal star forest is a star forest with maximum number of edges. Let G =(V,E) be a graph, the number of edges of a maximal star forest of G is equal to |V |−γ(G) [8]. We now use the domination number to form a lower bound on the incidence chromatic number of a graph. The following proposition reformulates the ideas in [2] and [13]. 2|E| Proposition 3.1 Let G =(V,E) be a graph. Then χi(G) ≥ . |V |−γ(G) Proof: Each edge of G is divided into two arcs in opposite directions. The total number of arcs of D(G) is therefore equal to 2|E|. According to the definition of the adjacency of arcs, an independent set of arcs is a star forest. Thus, a maximal independent set of arcs is a maximal star forest. As a result, the number of color 2|E| class required is at least . |V |−γ(G) r Corollary 3.2 Let G =(V,E) be an r-regular graph. Then χi(G) ≥ . − γ(G) 1 |V | Proof: By Handshaking lemma, we have 2|E| = d(v)=r|V |, the result follows v∈V from Proposition 3.1. Example 3.1 Corollary 3.2 provides an alternative method to show that a complete bipartite graph Kr,r , where r ≥ 2isnotr + 1-incidence colorable. As Kr,r is a r- regular graph with γ(Kr,r )=2,wehave r r χi(Kr,r ) ≥ = >r+1. − γ(G) − 1 1 |V | 1 r Example 3.1 can be extended to complete k-partite graph with partite sets of same size. Example 3.2 Let G be a complete k-partite graph where every partite set is of size − n j.